Urine-based assays for the detection of bladder cancer

Abstract

Bladder cancer is one of the most prevalent cancers worldwide. Furthermore, nonmuscle invasive bladder cancer has a 70% rate of recurrence, making it a considerable strain to the healthcare system. Patients with bladder cancer require repeat cystoscopic examinations of the bladder to monitor for tumor recurrence. The reason these patients have to undergo these costly, painful, invasive procedures is owing to the absence of accurate urine-based assays to detect the presence of bladder cancer noninvasively. Consequently, the development of a urine-based test to detect bladder cancer would be of tremendous benefit to both patients and healthcare systems. This article reports some of the more prominent urine markers in use today. In addition, the article will highlight some new technologies that are used to investigate novel urinary markers.

Figure 1. Genes with a significant change in expression taken from the urines of tumor-bearing versus urines from nontumor-bearing subjects

Using gene-association files from the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes Consortium, genes significantly regulated by urothelial carcinoma are depicted in a functional map annotator pathway profiler created by Pathway Studio. Upregulated genes are depicted in red, downregulated genes are depicted in green. Reproduced with permission from [57].

Figure 2. Subcellular location of proteins identified in naturally micturated urine samples

Reproduced with permission from [59].